Thursday, March 25, 2010

0303: Pod People

MST3k, Experiment #0303

Men were not ready to meet these... Pod People.

A little boy who has an extensive array of pets he likes to call "specimens" finds an alien egg to hatch, somewhat like Horton. The creature manages to use his snout to suck up peanuts and warp time and space with his fingers. Unfortunately, his brother who is found by poachers go on a killing spree.

"Your experiment today is called Pod People. It has nothing to do with pods... it has nothing to do with people... it has everything to do with hurting."

FVI... Why, oh why, FVI?? Yes, we start this movie off with yet another Film Ventures International bizarre opening sequence. As always, this sequence really has nothing to do with the movie... but boy howdy, this movie. I know a few people who can't sit through this one, but it's still a huge favourite of fans everywhere. The movie is terrible, sure, but to me, that's what this show is all about!!!

We have some hunters who have crossbows... they exist mostly at night. Then we have this little boy who finds a giant egg... he exists in some weird cabin with his family, and his voice is horribly dubbed by a lady. The best group though is the band. There's a singer and his backup vocalists, who he constantly berates... I don't see why they put up with him, but I guess it's because he's so dreamy. Anyways, they tend to appear in the daytime mostly, but after a stupid mishap that injures one of the whores, the band ends up at the family's cabin. Some other stuff happens, and people get killed... Oh and there's Trumpy. The egg had hatched into an ALF looking creature named Trumpy, who was friends with the little kid, but it would seem that he's the reason people are dying. But the kid insists that Trumpy, much like Gamera, is essentially good. I think that's basically it.

Even if you can't sit through the dreadfully awful movie, the host segments are superb. One of my favourite songs ever from MST3k is "Idiot Control Now" where Joel and the bots recreate the song that was being recorded by the band in the movie. I sing this song semi-often, especially when there's people around to hear the line "Bees on pie, burning rubber tires." It never fails to get a few weird looks... but every so often, someone will knowingle give the "okay" sign with their hand, and say "It stinks!"

Other host segment highlights include Joel showing Crow how to make New Age music, Trumpy's magic wreaking havoc on the SOL, and a sad ballad "Clowns In the Sky."

While I personally consider this another "perfect" episode, it's not one of my top ten(10) favourites... but it IS the second episode (right behind Eegah!) that I force people to watch when introducing them to the show. It shows just how great this show can be, even when the movie itself is just so painfully bad.